Toronto Blue Jays: 10 burning questions

[LittleOzzy]

The euphoria is thick among Blue Jays fans these days, after the most exciting off-season in two decades. Spring training is still a month away, and yet there hasn’t been an opening day more hotly anticipated since the glory days of the early 1990s. While Vegas has declared the Jays odds-on World Series favourites for 2013, it may be time for the city’s baseball fans to come back down to earth. On paper the Jays are a legitimate contender with a dynamic rotation and star-laden lineup, but as baseball fans witnessed last year with the surprising success of Baltimore and Oakland — juxtaposed against the Dodgers’ and Angels’ failure to make the post-season — there are no sure things. With apologies for killing the buzz, here are 10 critical questions facing the Jays in 2013.

1. Is Adam Lind still an everyday player?

Unless GM Alex Anthopoulos has more moves up his sleeve, Lind will open the season as the Jays’ designated hitter and occasional first baseman. Ideally the left-handed Lind would only face right-handed pitching — he hit .282 vs. righties over his career, compared to just .220 vs. lefties — but as it stands he has no obvious platoon mate without removing Edwin Encarnacion from the everyday lineup. Lind earned the chance to keep his everyday job with his much-improved performance in the second half of last season following a demotion.

5. Can Jose Reyes stay healthy?

The 2011 NL batting champion missed just two games last year, but he has battled hamstring issues throughout his career, sitting out almost all of 2009. Anthopoulos says the Rogers Centre’s artificial turf may be bad for ankles and knees, but is not any worse on hamstrings.

9. Can John Gibbons bring the team together?

The San Antonio native returns to the only big-league club he’s ever managed with enormous pressure to produce immediately. Barring injury, the lineup and rotation basically write themselves, but Gibbons will have to create cohesion on a roster with at least nine new faces, half of whom have spent the bulk of their careers in the National League.

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http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/ ... -questions

[The_Hater]

1. Is Adam Lind still an everyday player?

Unless GM Alex Anthopoulos has more moves up his sleeve, Lind will open the season as the Jays’ designated hitter and occasional first baseman. Ideally the left-handed Lind would only face right-handed pitching — he hit .282 vs. righties over his career, compared to just .220 vs. lefties — but as it stands he has no obvious platoon mate without removing Edwin Encarnacion from the everyday lineup. Lind earned the chance to keep his everyday job with his much-improved performance in the second half of last season following a demotion.

Is it just me or does this not make any sense? EE has to be removed from the everyday lineup to find a platoon partner for Lind? I don't get it.

And why can't Davis platoon with Lind?

[jaymeister15]

Is it just me or does this not make any sense? EE has to be removed from the everyday lineup to find a platoon partner for Lind? I don't get it.

And why can't Davis platoon with Lind?

yeah, not sure what he's trying to say, maybe he is suggesting platooning EE with Lind? which would be incredibly stupid.

[Raps in 4]

Is it just me or does this not make any sense? EE has to be removed from the everyday lineup to find a platoon partner for Lind? I don't get it.

And why can't Davis platoon with Lind?

yeah, not sure what he's trying to say, maybe he is suggesting platooning EE with Lind? which would be incredibly stupid.

That's not what he's saying. He's saying that there is no obvious platoon partner for Lind, unless they remove EE from the lineup. He isn't suggesting they will (in fact, he's implying they won't).

[RyderMike]

Is it just me or does this not make any sense? EE has to be removed from the everyday lineup to find a platoon partner for Lind? I don't get it.

And why can't Davis platoon with Lind?

yeah, not sure what he's trying to say, maybe he is suggesting platooning EE with Lind? which would be incredibly stupid.

That's not what he's saying. He's saying that there is no obvious platoon partner for Lind, unless they remove EE from the lineup. He isn't suggesting they will (in fact, he's implying they won't).

Exactly, to platoon EE with Lind, would involve finding a new 1B to play everyday. The more likely scenario would be to "double platoon" Encarnacion -> DH= Lind/EE and 1B= EE/???? <- EE still plays everyday and the platoon is essentially Lind/??? with EE just switching positions depending on the pitcher (or the far easier solution of EE manning first everyday and Davis/Lind platooning DH)

Note: first idea was made assuming if we acquire a platoon partner (unlikely), that player plays 1B not DH.

[baulderdash77]

Not to open up the Lind vs Cooper debate again, but Lind is not the sure fire DH next year and I expect him to be on a short leash. If anyone else in the majors wanted him, he'd be gone right now so we probably value him as such.

If we put him through waivers again this year, he would clear or we would jump for joy that someone took him off our hands. That's the value of Adam Lind.